Bahogany Smith of New Haven, right, holds her crying son Trequell Roberts, 12, holding a photo of his friend, Marquell Banks Monday afternoon in front of the home of Marquell's mother on Pierpont Street in New Haven. Banks was killed by a shotgun blast Sunday night in an apartment on Porter Street in New Haven. Science Burress, 18, while has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting. (Peter Hvizdak/Register)

Alicia Roberts was phoning her 13-year-old son to come in for dinner Sunday evening and to get ready for school when someone rang on the other line and told her he had been shot in the head.

She rushed across town, hoping the caller was wrong.

"Even when they were bringing me to identify the body, I was hoping it wasn't him," said Roberts, whose son, Marquell Banks, was the youngest of her four children. "Everything hit me when I had to look at him."

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Police Monday charged a city man who was hanging out with Marquell with firing the shotgun blast that killed the Fair Haven Middle School seventh-grader.

Science Burress, 18, is charged with murder, reckless endangerment and firearms counts and was held in lieu of $2 million bail in connection with the death in a house on Porter Street in the West River neighborhood.

The difference in a charge of murder and manslaughter is intent.

"Right now, it's a murder charge," Lt. Julie Johnson, who is head of the detective division, said Monday. "The only person who can tell us it's an accident is him (Burress)."

She declined comment on what, if anything, Burress told police after he surrendered with his mother.

According to police, Marquell was hanging out with three older youths Sunday. He was friends with two of them. Acting Chief John Velleca said the relationship between Marquell and Burress was unclear.

The four, at some point, returned to one of their homes at 154 Porter St. Only Burress and Marquell were in the room when Marquell was killed, however.

Before he fled, the suspect allegedly said, "'Oh my God, I shot him,'" and then said, "'I'm sorry,'" or words to that effect, a source said.

Johnson would "neither confirm nor deny" that statement.

One of the teens who was there said he didn't know if the killing was an accident.

The 17-year-old, who identified himself as Mike, said the four were just hanging out and "looking to hang with some females" when they ended up back at his house on Porter Street. He went upstairs.

He heard the shot and ran down, he said. Burress was still there, but fled just afterward. Marquell was on the floor.

"I was so hysterical. I didn't know what to do. I was just trying to keep him alive," he said. "I ain't never had nobody die in my arms. I've never been involved in no homicide case."

He said he didn't know exactly what happened, but "in my honest opinion, I think it was intentional."

He expressed sympathy to his friend's family.

"I apologize from the bottom of my heart."

At their home on Pierpont Street, Roberts described her son as a fun-loving boy who was always smiling, rapping and kissing his nephew. He played basketball at Farnam Neighborhood House and aspired to play professionally.

"He always said, 'Quita, I'm going to get a Lamborghini and buy Mommy a house,'" said a sister, Laquita Banks, 24.

"He was only but 13. He was a baby," she said. "I don't understand how somebody could do this to a baby. He still had a life to live."

The incident occurred in a small apartment attached to a house at 154 Porter St., about two blocks off Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and North Frontage Road.

Police quickly developed Burress as a suspect and executed a search warrant at his mother's apartment overnight on Lodge Street in the Westville Manor projects.

At about 10:45 a.m. Monday, Burress, accompanied by his mother, turned himself in.

No one answered the door on Lodge Street Monday afternoon.

Roberts said she had seen her son only hours before he was killed.

The last thing he said to her was, "'Ma, I'll be back.'" Roberts thought he was just down the street. She didn't know how he got across town.

Last fall, Marquell played in the basketball league championship at Farnam House and scored the winning basket, said Frank Redente, operations manager at Farnam House.

When he was 12, Marquell played on a 13-14 AAU team that competed in a tournament in Orlando, Fla.

"What I remember about him -- always smiling and never once gave us a bit of problems."

Laquita Banks, through tears, said she believes the city has to do more about the flood of guns on the street. "Where are they coming from? Somebody's putting guns in these kids' hands," said Banks. "It's crazy because all of these kids are dying for what? Over a gun? Over what? A street name? Blood? (the gang) Tre? It's just senseless."

Staff members at Fair Haven Middle School were planning to raise funds to help with funeral expenses. Redente wanted to do the same.

Outside her house, Roberts recounted seeing her dead child. No parent should ever have to identify a child at the hospital, she said.

"No mother should have to experience that. I always cried for other people's kids, but now it hit home for me," she said.